The Faith on Our Journey

I visited Baduy village at Banten last weekend. It was one of the most remote village in Java, we have to walk for more than 5 hours one way (I took 7 hours), climb and descend more than 4 hills just to reach there. There’s one thing I learned from my journey there:

We have to keep strong on our way to our destination no matter how hard the obstacles are in front of us.

It was very challenging trip to Baduy. I had to walk muddy and slippery paths, climb a very cliffy hills, all under rainfall. There is no easier shortcut and every road we take always have very hard obstacles I had to face.

There is also no point of return. Once you walk, you have to continue to your destination. Unlike game which has checkpoint, when you face a hard obstacle, you can retry again from beginning, or even avoid that obstacle. But not in real life.

During my journey, I had to step on muddy path, it made my shoes full of mud. I was raged on why the path was so muddy, why the rain was not stopping. Then I realized that that was not right, because you were angry to your own condition, angry to God for what He guided you so far.

Then I also had to climb up a steep cliffs, it was about 200 meters from downhill. Each steps killed my breath. I almost lost my breath, I even thought I could die at that moment. I cried myself to God, why the cliff was seems never ending and I still had not reach the top yet. Each turns all I saw was another cliff to climb. I felt hopeless.

But I realized, it was the path I chose, it was the journey I wanted, it was my decision to go. I was not in a position to complain. I set my target, my destination, and I had to reach there. No matter the obstacle in front of me, failure was not an option at all. I had to move, or I just die in vain there.

By the time I reached my destination, all pain seemed went away. It was the prize I was looking for, and I deserved it. It was for all the hard times, the effort I paid towards my target.

In real life you only have one chance. Once or never. No roll back and no reset button. Just like hills I have to climb and valley I have to descend, life is just the same. There are times when we walk on easy path, and when we have to suffer on our hard times.

As long as we keep strong, surely we will arrive at our destination. Because the path is actually already been laid, we only have to walk through it patiently and faithfully.